他双眼失明本不应该成为一个问题。美国法庭使用的所有文件都必须以电子扫描的方式让视障者通过普通的屏幕阅读技术进行阅读。然而，罗斯所代理的案件所需的许多文件是静态形式的PDF文件。他不能用上述方式进行阅读，影响了他替客户办案的能力。

尽管罗斯多次进行投诉，法官和当地的巡回法院的书记员却拒绝设法让他能阅读这些文件。

好在罗斯了解《美国残疾人法》（ADA）所赋予他的权利，于是他向美国司法部（U.S. Department of Justice）提出投诉。
2014年7月，美国司法部与法院达成协议，即，如残障人士提出要求，法庭记录中的任何文件都须确保能让残障人士进行无障碍阅读，且法院的网站和电子立案系统也须让包括盲人在内的残障人士能够访问并阅读。

值此庆祝《美国残疾人法》签署25周年之际，该法继续发挥着重要作用。这部法律禁止所有对身体或精神残疾进行歧视的行为，并确保残障人士能方便地进出各建筑物和公共及私人的交通工具。

Ensuring access to justice itself

In 2009 Florida attorney Tom Ross represented the plaintiff in a lawsuit involving drainage problems. Ross was blind, due to sepsis that developed six years before after minor surgery.

His sightlessness should not have posed a problem. Documents used in U.S. courts are required to be electronically scanned in a way that allows a visually impaired person to access them through common screen-reading technology. However, many of the documents Ross needed for his case were static-form PDFs that could not be read that way, impairing his ability to represent his client.

Despite Ross’ repeated complaints, the judge and the clerk of the local circuit court refused to make the documents accessible to him.

Fortunately, Ross knew his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and complained to the U.S. Department of Justice.

In July 2014, the Justice Department reached a settlement with the court to ensure it would provide individuals with disabilities with any document in the court record in an accessible format upon request, and the court’s website and electronic case-filing system would be fully accessible to individuals with disabilities,including the blind.